Agricultural harvesters (e.g., combines) provide a combination of functions used in harvesting a crop. In some examples, harvesters combine the functions of reaping, threshing and winnowing. Reaping is the cutting and gathering of crops, and threshing and winnowing is the loosening and subsequent separation of the edible part of the crop from the chaff.
Harvesters include interchangeable harvester heads. In some harvester heads a plurality of row sections are provided to facilitate the threshing of row based crops, including, but not limited to, corn, cotton, carrots, cabbage, sugar beets or the like. Individual rows of the crop are received within corresponding row sections and then gathered and cut. In a corn harvester head, for example, each corn stalk of a row is drawn into a channel of the row section by opposed chains and teeth, and at the same time the stalk is pulled downwardly through the channel by rotating spindles to separate the ears from the stalk. Downstream mechanisms within the harvester continue threshing and winnowing before delivery to a grain elevator.
Some harvesters include yield monitors provided near a grain elevator that lifts the threshed and winnowed crop to a bin at the rear of the harvester or in an adjacent trailer pulled by a tractor or truck. The harvested crop from each of a plurality of row sections of the harvester head is combined together and directed to the grain elevator. In some examples the yield monitors are associated with features of the grain elevator and measure the yield of the combined harvested crop as it is passed by the grain elevator.